The One

Song Notes

–The summer this song was written my friend Joe Calloway gave me use of an office off his garage. I loved getting away from my house to write at a place with no phone and no distractions, and I kept daily hours in that little room.

While I was working there Jay Joyce gave me a beautiful instrumental track he had recorded, and he asked me if I could work with it in some way. It was a long, meandering asymmetrical piece, but it was lovely, dreamlike.

At that time I was listening to the Roxy Music album "Avalon," and I’d read that making it involved a lot of improvisational parts edited together. I wanted to try that idea, so I sang along to Jay’s track over and over, scatting sounds and words, then listening back and slowly shaping a song from what I heard.

Though the synth-based production is a bit dated now-I sometimes jokingly describe this track as "Tom sings Flock of Seagulls"–I still like the song. Like "Angels," it was an experiment in naming something deeply felt but hard to describe.

[Joe Cocker’s recording of "The One" was featured in "Miami Vice."]

So a time has come when you’ve lost your way
The light is gone, life feels unsafe
A change is underway

If you’re on the road or here at home
You’ve got to know you’ve got someone who loves you
All along the way

It’s one for the other, forever true
Keeping the night on the run
And lover to lover, light on the move
Higher and higher, finding that we are the one
We are the one

I got to make it, I got a psalm to write
I got a lot to say, I’ve got someone who loves me
All along the way

And when time is up and the world is gone
I know one thing will carry on
I’m gonna be there baby
And I’ll be there with you

It’s one for the other, forever true
Keeping the night on the run
And lover to lover, light on the move
Higher and higher, finding that we are the one
We are the one